My aim is to offer insights into some of the more subtle principles underpinning prints. The commentary is based on thirty-eight years of teaching and the prints and other collectables that I am focusing on are those which I have acquired over the years.
In the galleries of prints (accessed by clicking the links immediately below) I am also adding fresh images offered for sale. If you get lost in the maze of links, simply click the "home" button to return to the blog discussions.

Thursday, 11 May 2017

“Creation of
the Sun, Moon and Plants” or as inscribed on the plate: “Germinet terra herbam
virentem” (Gen. Cap. I. Vers 11: [God said] “Let the earth bring forth green
grass” [and it came to pass]) and “Fecitque Deus duo luminaria magna” (Gen.
Cap. I. Vers.16: “God made the two great lights” [the greatest to rule in the
day, the least to rule in the night, and the stars]), 1781, from the series of 40
plates first published by Gavin Hamilton (1723–98) in “Schola Italica Picturae”
after Michelangelo Buonarroti’s (1475–1564)fresco by on the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel. The British Museum advises that the plates for Hamilton’s
publication were later sold to Piranesi in 1780 and passed for publication toGiovanni Volpato (1740–1803). As
this plate is dated 1781, I presume that it is from the Volpato edition. (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=122151)

Etching and
engraving on laid paper trimmed with margins around the image borderline.

Condition: Excellent
impression trimmed with margins around the image borderline. The sheet has
light age-toning, but is otherwise in good condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes,
folds, losses or significant stains).

I am selling
this strong etching by one of the great masters of interpretative printmaking
for the total cost of AU$194 (currently US$142.92/EUR131.45/GBP110.60 at the
time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the
world.

If you are
interested in purchasing this beautifully executed print based on Michelangelo’s
famous fresco, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will
send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This image
fascinates me for all the wrong reasons and I had to check the source
image—Michelangelo’s fresco—to see whether Cunego had made a mistake … but he
hadn’t.

For those who
believe that the legendary Michelangelo could never make a mistake, please
forgive me, but from my way of looking he has made an error of judgement in
this composition.

Let me explain …

One of the
fundamental rules of achieving spatial depth in a composition is to ensure that
key subjects overlap each other to ensure that a viewer “knows” where each
subject lies in relation to the others. For instance, Michelangelo presents the
figure of God the Father with his hands gesturing in two different directions
as being clearly in front of his accompanying angels by God’s form overlapping
the small helpers. Beyond this example of overlapping, however, I see many
curious points on silhouette edges where forms are tangentially, or almost
tangentially, abutted (i.e. lightly “touching” each other) rather than the subject
in front overlapping the one further behind. Note for instance how the head of
the closer angel accompanying God “touches” the circle of the sun and how God’s
hand almost touches the sun. Note also how the closer angel’s finger
tangentially abuts the right foot of the flying figure shown on the left—a
second view of God the Father. Actually the more that I look at this
composition the more uneasy I am with it regarding tangential junctions, as I
now see that the tail end of the left figure’s drapery almost touches the sun
and that God’s outstretched left arm tangential connects with the head of the
angel in shadow on the right.

Of course, Michelangelo
would have very good reasons to dispose the figures in this arrangement anyway
that he liked. Moreover, “rules” are meant to be broken (or so I’m told) but,
for me, this composition has me wondering what Michelangelo was thinking.